Well, it seems they think they can try to do something right, as long as they make a wish and pray, but the Director they're thinking of going with had to resign. They'll have to think a lot, really hard, and this time you'll be reading something of mine, I hope.
/code
You know they're going to outsource this.
Let the folks in Bangalore try to figure that one out!
Just read evey third word. (Note the "3" below.)
Now, if I could only automate the process and have it come out reasonably intelligible.
"We're not talking about water or food here, we're talking music and films, they're luxuries. I can't think of a way to justify forcing these into the public domain, other than 'I want it for free'."
Two points, here. The first is quite simple: When the copyright holder created the work, the term of the copyright was 50 years (or whatever). Fine. It's sort of a social contract. 'I create this, society gives me 50 years to profit, then it belongs to society at large.'
Now the creator is trying to change the contract. Sorry, a deal's a deal. You want 100 years on future works? OK we'll talk. But trying to extend the time on something 40 years old is right out. That deal was done 40 years ago. Both sides agreed to 50 years. End of conversation.
The second point is that to some people, songs and films and poetry and art ARE like water and food. They are not luxuries, they are why we live. They are what makes us human. Take these away and we might as well be vegetables.
So you see, some people are forced (or driven) to buy the **AA's products and we don't like it that the "goverment of the people" is handing the **AA a monopoly on them.
If songs pass into public domain, no money changes hands, so there is nothing to tax.
It is in each government's self-interest to to force people to pay for things so the transactions can be taxed. Extending the copyrights to "forever" will guarantee a future tax base.
So, who gets to decide how your "brain-dump" is used? Certainly not you. Sure, you could "wish" for various things to happen, but without a body to command, you'd have no enforcement powers.
Why would I want to give my neural contents to someone I don't know, who could later sell them to someone I dislike, to be used as a "mental slave"?
I can think of no better definition of hell than if I were somehow "aware" of what was going on, but powerless to stop it.
So they're going to include the worst of the MS product line, IE and MP, throw in a firewall and antivirus (because IE and MP are security risks) and leave everything else to an application server.
That's like Ford re-introduing the Pinto, but just a stripped-down version featuring only a rusty rear bumper and a gas tank.
You'll have to tow it behind a Ford pickup truck fitted with a special firewall/blast shield.
If you use their traditional online banking service from a PC not booted using their CD, and subsequently get defrauded somehow, this will enable them to say "Ahhh.. but you weren't using our special software!", and ignore your complaint.
Perhaps, but here's another idea:
Having customers use internet banking is less costly for banks, but potential internet banking customers are hesitant to rely on online transactions because they fear (or know) that their PC is "owned". They think that someone might be logging their passwords. For Joe User, that's a valid concern. He doesn't really know how to tell, for sure, whether he's been hacked.
So the bank offers Joe a CD that can't be hacked, that won't trash his existing system and that has any special software already installed. The bank says. "Here, Joe, boot this CD, do your banking securely, then reboot your PC for normal use."
And even if you gave "No" to everything, they still try to convince you.
If you answer "No" to all the questions, your mind must surely be clouded by toxins to the point where you can't even answer simple questions correctly.
This would also go a long way to stamping out IP theft."Amnonymous" internet use should be a Federal felony and carry a stiff term equivlent to the penalties for kiddy porn,IP theft,and subversion which are the only reasons someone would want to be anonymous anyway.
... Quoth the Anonymous Coward about an NYT article based on information from an "anonymous government source".
Seems to me that if everyone just changed their names to "Anonymous", we could all just use our real names without fear.
It's just that, when major transitions occur, the dominant forms of life do not remain dominant. And that would mean us.
Don't count on the cockraoches taking over just yet. Humans would not be wiped off the face of the Earth, it's just that a lot of us would die. The ones who depend on technology, commerce and "artificial" food/water distribution would be hardest hit. It just so happens that those are the ones responsible for a disproportiately high share of the warming problem.
So this whole global warming thing is a self-correcting problem - when it gets too bad, the chief problem-causers die off. Ain't Nature wunnerful?
It still irks me though, that I'll be one of the culs.
Back in the 1980s I was involved with Amdahl/Fujitsu's vector processor. It was an Amdahl 470 scalar processor (IBM 370 architecture) combined with a Fujitsu vector box. It featured a reconfigurable floating-point register array. The registers could be set up as 1024 32-bit regs, 512 64-bit regs, or 256 128-bit regs. In operation, you set the configuration, loaded the registers, specified the op-code and clocked the FPU. Presto! The operation was performed simultaneously on all the registers. Then you had to store the results back to RAM. Neat stuff!
The weird part was the programming. The scalar and vector units operated independently, much like the Cell does. There were some new synchronizing instructions such as "wait-for-checkpoint" that allowed out-of-sequence operation to proceed up to specified places in the program. Writing code in assembler was a nightmare, but Fujitsu developed a FORTRAN optimizing compiler (most vector work was done in FORTRAN back then) that automatically handled the optimal register configuration and the synchronization. The folks that wrote that compiler have my utmost respect.
BTW, Amdahl sold only a handful of these processors, mostly to European oil exploration companies to process their seismic echo data.
Just look in the DIY kit section of any electronics store
You might want to look at the specs before you buy one. Check the distortion and channel separation numbers. Is it even stereo? (Many of the cheaper kits are mono. A single electret mic is a clue, here.) Is it PLL controlled or will the output frequency drift all over the place?
I built the MPX96 and I've been happy with it for about two years.
The range is about 200 feet (1/2 mile with a longer antenna - oops!) and the sound quality is "good" - that's somewhere between "fair" and "great".
Slashdot Mirror
You know they're going to outsource this. Let the folks in Bangalore try to figure that one out!
Just read evey third word. (Note the "3" below.)Now, if I could only automate the process and have it come out reasonably intelligible.
3Two points, here. The first is quite simple: When the copyright holder created the work, the term of the copyright was 50 years (or whatever). Fine. It's sort of a social contract. 'I create this, society gives me 50 years to profit, then it belongs to society at large.'
Now the creator is trying to change the contract. Sorry, a deal's a deal. You want 100 years on future works? OK we'll talk. But trying to extend the time on something 40 years old is right out. That deal was done 40 years ago. Both sides agreed to 50 years. End of conversation.The second point is that to some people, songs and films and poetry and art ARE like water and food. They are not luxuries, they are why we live. They are what makes us human. Take these away and we might as well be vegetables.
So you see, some people are forced (or driven) to buy the **AA's products and we don't like it that the "goverment of the people" is handing the **AA a monopoly on them.There! There it is!
You've just sussed it.If songs pass into public domain, no money changes hands, so there is nothing to tax.
It is in each government's self-interest to to force people to pay for things so the transactions can be taxed. Extending the copyrights to "forever" will guarantee a future tax base.That's not a theory, you know. That's a friggin' AXIOM.
Oh, that is soooo much like cheating.
Why would I want to give my neural contents to someone I don't know, who could later sell them to someone I dislike, to be used as a "mental slave"?
I can think of no better definition of hell than if I were somehow "aware" of what was going on, but powerless to stop it.IMHO, this "Javine" person pictured in TFA appears worthy of further study.
Caption - "Javine is Britain's hope for winning this year's Eurovision song contest."
Sub-caption - "She's no Moldovian granny banging a drum, but there you are."That's like Ford re-introduing the Pinto, but just a stripped-down version featuring only a rusty rear bumper and a gas tank.
You'll have to tow it behind a Ford pickup truck fitted with a special firewall/blast shield.And this all happens at the speed of ... ["403"]
Well now I do.
Thanks for giving me something else to wonder about.Fewer tornados?
Yagi antennae attract tornados, you know.Those were metric hours.
A: They're both dead.
OpenBSD: I'm not dead yet...Chopped liver: (no response - it's dead)
Perhaps, but here's another idea:
So the bank offers Joe a CD that can't be hacked, that won't trash his existing system and that has any special software already installed. The bank says. "Here, Joe, boot this CD, do your banking securely, then reboot your PC for normal use."Having customers use internet banking is less costly for banks, but potential internet banking customers are hesitant to rely on online transactions because they fear (or know) that their PC is "owned". They think that someone might be logging their passwords. For Joe User, that's a valid concern. He doesn't really know how to tell, for sure, whether he's been hacked.
What's not to like about it?
If you answer "No" to all the questions, your mind must surely be clouded by toxins to the point where you can't even answer simple questions correctly.
Get thee to a detox center!NOW!
It was long... very, very long... and life is short... so very, very short...
Duh!
I, like the rest of the male half of the populace, was thinking "sex".
Now I'm thinking "Duh!", of course, but I was thinking "sex".Wait! OK, now I'm thinking "sex" again.
... Quoth the Anonymous Coward about an NYT article based on information from an "anonymous government source".
Seems to me that if everyone just changed their names to "Anonymous", we could all just use our real names without fear.Would it have been so hard to just put in a frickin' number!?
The writer must have misplaced his list of exactly which numbers have the ability to frick.
A word of caution there, mate. How do you know 'e 'asn't got some astrophysics going on in 'is trousers?
It sure was nice of them to let you hang around for an extra day or two so you could get in a few last posts to Slashdot. :)
LAST POST!!The Bible. Council of Nicea, 300 AD.
It's been on the best-seller list for centuries. I filed my copy under "Historical Fiction."Don't count on the cockraoches taking over just yet. Humans would not be wiped off the face of the Earth, it's just that a lot of us would die. The ones who depend on technology, commerce and "artificial" food/water distribution would be hardest hit. It just so happens that those are the ones responsible for a disproportiately high share of the warming problem.
So this whole global warming thing is a self-correcting problem - when it gets too bad, the chief problem-causers die off. Ain't Nature wunnerful?It still irks me though, that I'll be one of the culs.
The weird part was the programming. The scalar and vector units operated independently, much like the Cell does. There were some new synchronizing instructions such as "wait-for-checkpoint" that allowed out-of-sequence operation to proceed up to specified places in the program. Writing code in assembler was a nightmare, but Fujitsu developed a FORTRAN optimizing compiler (most vector work was done in FORTRAN back then) that automatically handled the optimal register configuration and the synchronization. The folks that wrote that compiler have my utmost respect.
BTW, Amdahl sold only a handful of these processors, mostly to European oil exploration companies to process their seismic echo data.You might want to look at the specs before you buy one. Check the distortion and channel separation numbers. Is it even stereo? (Many of the cheaper kits are mono. A single electret mic is a clue, here.) Is it PLL controlled or will the output frequency drift all over the place?
I built the MPX96 and I've been happy with it for about two years.
The range is about 200 feet (1/2 mile with a longer antenna - oops!) and the sound quality is "good" - that's somewhere between "fair" and "great".